


Mended to be Broken

by stelliums



Series: Magical Girl AU [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Magical Girls, F/M, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Mentioned Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Mentioned Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Minor Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Past Aqua/Terra (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, healing touch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:48:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26075185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stelliums/pseuds/stelliums
Summary: A magical girl, terrified of losing her light, meets a conduit of darkness on the first of many nights. Companion one-shot to ‘What We Do to Each Other’.
Relationships: Aqua/Riku (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: Magical Girl AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1913002
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Mended to be Broken

Rain pulsed down onto the pavement and filled every crevice. The weather slowed down life to a crawl for some – soaking clothes, ruining plans, dampening moods. It sped up the night for Aqua; her feet slid over railings and beams to effortlessly traverse the city. It was a more effective way to fight, although much of the fun had been taken out of it while she was fighting alone.

Aqua paused to catch her breath. She tensed up. Loss of stamina – she must have absorbed too much darkness from her earlier confrontation with the creatures. She could feel it, seeping into her bones like water into fabric, with each passing second. There was no one that she trusted to take on her burden. That was, she mused, one of the dangers of going out alone as a magical girl.

She turned a corner to be met with glowing, amber eyes. Aqua raised her staff and slammed it into the ground to create a barrier while she assessed the situation. Two, three, ten; the amount of creatures that she saw multiplied by the minute. Then she turned and ran, to gain some ground, silver projectiles honing in on the creatures as more revealed themselves. The creatures fell one after another yet Aqua found no rush of adrenaline-fuelled joy in it. Not even desperation. Only the sinking feeling that accompanied her shaking hands. Each magical girl, everyone like herself, had limited time on this Earth.

What if her time was up?

A couple ran across the rooftops above, seeming to glide through the air. Their laughter filled the otherwise quiet streets. Riku smiled with them and joined in their laughter. They wouldn’t see him from so far above. Sora and Kairi were unaware that he followed them outside, when they left their homes and he snuck out of the dorms of their school many, many hours after curfew. And why would he not? He needed to know that he would see them the next morning. That he would be greeted with Kairi’s warm smile and a ‘surprise’ embrace from Sora. If he was to take their final exams alone, in a few year’s time, if he were to never wake up beside them, it would be a small solace to him if he knew why.

Ahead, an elegant young woman, not much older than himself, created a light show of brilliant silver beams from her staff. He watched the spectacle from afar. If most of the children in the city knew of the existence of these warriors of light, they would have leaned out of their windows to behold it. She was like a dancer but Riku couldn’t help but notice the buzz of anxiety that filled her every movement. A hand that kept shifting to her chest, a lack of focus not only on her adversaries but on her surroundings. Riku knew the signs well.

Sora and Kairi would be out of reach by then. They, and others like them, could travel the city in ways that would be foolish for him to attempt. It was a terrible habit, he thought, to traipse around after them. They would notice him, one day, and know that their boyfriend knew more than he was letting on. He sighed and started to walk in the direction of the boarding school, back to his dorm and to what he hoped were sound-asleep roommates.

His route was blocked by a staff. Up close, it seemed to be made of silver, decorated with intricate patterns. It’s owner stared at him with wide, blue eyes. She was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling, rising and falling. The long skirt she wore, cut over her legs to allow for greater movement, appeared to be made of the galaxies themselves, and moved with a mind of its own. The thing that most interested Riku, though, was the gem attached to her outfit, in the centre of her chest. It was clouded over with a black mist that partially obscured its original deep blue shade.

He raised his hands to prove that he didn’t pose a threat. The young woman was certainly jumpy; he hadn’t intended to bump into her, let alone attack her. “Hey–!”

“I’m sorry... I wasn’t thinking clearly. I thought you were one of them–“ His assailant murmured. Her voice blended in with the sound of the rain. She slowly lowered her staff and tucked her fringe behind her ear. “Do I know you?”

“I don’t think so. But I think you’re about to catch a chill, from the looks of you. You should get inside.” Riku crossed his arms. She looked him over, studying him. Searching for a gem. He wouldn’t be surprised - he hadn’t performed shock or obnoxious curiosity when he had been confronted with her weapon, so she would guess that he was one of them. It was a reasonable assumption. “Come on. I... have a place nearby. You look like you could use a break.”

She huffed, breath coming out in a cloud against the cool air. Her feet had lost some of their previous, dancer-like elegance as her steps wavered. “Again, I’m sorry... I have-” The magical girl paused and turned back to face him again. There were tears in her eyes, indistinguishable from the rain aside from her reddened eyes. “Who did you say you were?”

“Riku. You didn’t say your name, either.” He held the umbrella in his hand over her head. It would help very little given how drenched the young woman already was, but it brought a faint smile to her face. A sad, yet captivating smile. “You can always just walk me back, if you don’t want to come inside. Doesn’t it get dangerous out here, this late?”

His lightly-asked question coaxed laughter out of her. “I’m Aqua. Come on, we should go before the creatures come back.” 

They walked together across the dampened streets, dragging the other when their pace slowed. The closer they grew to the ‘place’ that he had brought up, the more hesitant Aqua appeared. Her fingers were never far from her gem and her eyes were never far from bursting into tears. It was a small house, a rented room in reality, from a friend of a friend. Nothing expensive, nothing special, but Riku planned to buy it one day, so that he, Sora and Kairi could live together. Anything would be better than his school’s dorms. 

“Riku...” A hand grabbed onto his arm. Aqua’s nails dug into him. He winced but didn’t complain. She relied upon him for support after all. “My head hurts... Everything hurts... Do you have anything inside? A first-aid kit, or something?” Her wide eyes were desperate.

Riku delicately, cautiously, ran his fingers over the gem on her chest. The darkness within it followed them, dancing to his silent tune. He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. It was a quick fix - it would take more than a feather’s touch to remove all of the darkness from the girl. “I can help, but a first-aid kit won’t do anything. Will you let me help?” He kept his hand over her own, against her gem. It glowed slightly in response to his touch. Could she feel it too, the weight of the darkness leaving her body? The skip of a heartbeat at every touch?

Her voice was a mere whisper. “Please. I... I don’t know if I can carry on much longer like this.” She leaned in closer to him, for support or to enjoy the full coverage of his umbrella. Riku took a chance and kissed her, a further taste of his assistance. Aqua didn’t pull back.

As a student, Aqua was the most straight-laced girl that most teachers had ever encountered. No one that knew her would imagine studious, well-mannered, high school sweetheart Aqua to end up on the bed of a boy who was essentially a stranger, shirt unlaced and hair spread out over the pillows. But there she was, her heart pounding and her stomach doing flips under the intense gaze of the one that hovered above her.

“You don’t have to help me like this... You hardly know me.” She uttered while Riku’s skilful fingers undid the rest of the lacing on the back of her shirt. Her arms were draped over his back. The sight of his almost-unclothed body and the feelings that accompanied it were eerily familiar. She lifted her back off of the bed for Riku to slip off her shirt. Her hands slid further down his back. Her first time with Terra had been far more awkward, despite the odd circumstances of this meeting.

“I don’t... but I want to. If you want me to. This won’t take long– you probably have someone or something else to go home to.” Riku paused and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye with his thumb. She felt waves of embarrassment ripple through her – she hadn’t realised that she had been about to cry. “Don’t cry– why are you crying?”

Aqua kissed him quickly and placed his hand against her chest. “I don’t. I don’t–“ She repeated, as though beating the truth into her own head. Her studies had finished months ago, along with her last and only relationship. What was left for her at the place she called home was an empty, cold bed and pieces of someone that wasn’t her. She pulled herself closer to him, on top of him, closing the gap between her body and his. “Take your time with me, please.”

It felt like so long since she had felt treasured by the man that held her. His hands explored her like something new and fascinating, but never wandered far from the gem for long. It was a part of her that Terra had avoided, as though being a magical girl was seperate from Aqua, Terra’s girlfriend. Riku treated it like a precious thing, like the magical girl and Aqua were one and the same. Like she was not a contradiction, like one could pleasure both.

Riku let out a hiss and tensed beneath her. When he noticed her worried expression, he took her hand from where it had been against his back. “No, it’s fine– just a scratch. Are you–“ He had been staring at the ring on her finger. It was silver, real silver, and studded with a tiny diamond. “Usually the ring is the first thing to go.”

Aqua tilted his chin away from the ring and tightened the grip of her thighs against his hips. “Do you want me to be sorry for scratching you? Or... giving you the wrong idea?” She found the strength to tease. For that strength, Riku made her grip onto his back, her nails trailing red lines across his skin. “Ah– Riku–“ The other’s breath was heavy too. It was as though they were both taking as much as they could get before they were to part ways again. “Riku...” His name felt like a prayer against her lips. What was the removal of darkness other than holy? What made this any worse than heaven? After Ven, Terra, _everything_ , any slice of happiness felt like a blessing.

“So...? Do you feel any better?” Riku’s voice was soft, calming, as his fingers traced over her back. Aqua wanted to stay there forever, in this dreamlike haze that slowed her frantic mind and heightened every touch of his skin against hers, no matter how gentle.

Her response was an affirmative mumble. She could still hear the rain against the window. Based on the faint rays of light that slipped through the curtains, it was the sleepy hours of early morning between sunrise and when most people would go to work or school. “You have somewhere to be, don’t you? I understand, if you have to go. I would have too, until a few months ago.” Aqua rolled over to rest her head against Riku’s chest rather than a pillow.

Riku nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear. It was growing out from the cropped, short cut that she had always maintained, however messily her home hairdressing skills were. “What happened?” He asked, instead of hurriedly leaving to go to his next obligation.

“It’s a long story, but I’m waiting for my final grades to come back and don’t have a part-time job to keep me busy.” From the way that he looked at her when she mentioned her final grades, Aqua realised that Riku was slightly younger than her, only by a year or two. The burden of the events that had occurred in the past year or so was too much to put on someone like him, someone that she had only met that day. He had helped her out enough – without him, her condition would have worsened. “Riku–?”

He had been staring off into the distance, through the window above her. Aqua couldn’t blame him; neither of them had slept all night. When he faced her again, he looked as though he had seen a ghost. Pale as the sheets beneath them, wide, green eyes that looked in her direction but not truly _at_ her.

“You look a lot better now. We should... we should do this again. Whenever you need me.” Riku’s words were smooth yet somehow stilted. Aqua struggled to figure out what was diluting them, what other thoughts had distracted his mind from his offer of further help, further connection. He handed her a scribbled piece of paper, ripped out of a notebook. “My number, and this address. Just in case.”

“Right... just in case. What should I call you? ‘Conduit’? ‘Gem doctor’?” She attempted to joke but Riku still appeared to be in a world of his own. Aqua sat up and slipped her shirt back on, only able to loosely tie the lacing at the back.

Silently, Riku undid her haphazard ties and tied the lace himself. “Riku is fine. Stay safe, Aqua.” He traced his fingers over her gem one last time. There was no remaining darkness inside of it, no trace of ink-like black within the brilliant blue stone. It was glowing as brightly as the day that she had received it.

The short remark sounded like a goodbye, so Aqua took the hint. “...You too.”


End file.
